Creating New Cars, Driving Blind People

Next January 29th, a car will try to challenge the international daytime racetrack in Florida.

The 4 kilometer triangular oval track is one of the most famous racing tracks in the United States national automobile racing Association, but this challenge car is not an ordinary car - it is expected to become the world's first commercial non visual interface vehicle.

It allows

The "non visual interface" is a new word for cars. The word "Virginia Tech" is used to describe this vehicle.

Dr. Marc Maurer, chairman of the US foundation for the blind, has been trying to develop cars that blind people can also drive. It is believed that this will enable blind people to make their contribution and to narrow the distance between them.

But others think this is unlikely.

"Some people think I'm crazy.

They will ask, "why don't you spend your money on those more realistic things?" he said. "Some people are hard to understand. Others think this idea is crazy."

This idea is really crazy, crazy enough that it may even come true.

With the help of a long history of automatic driving technology, Professor Dennis Hong of the robotics and Mechanical Laboratory of Virginia Tech has led a team of nine undergraduates. It took two years to make the dream of blind driving a car a reality.

Autopilot is a project that was first developed in 1970s, and its original goal is naturally in the military field.

In the past decades of development, some of the technologies used for driverless cars have become the standard configuration of modern cars, such as brakes, anti lock braking systems, automatic parking systems, and stability control systems when turning. Nowadays, driverless cars have been able to cross the North American continent, but they are still unable to display their feet in complex urban road conditions.

Although Germany's Daimler Benz Corp has developed the technology of vehicle to vehicle communication a few years ago, GM's recently released concept car has also tried to connect wireless cars to the best route and avoid collision, but these technologies are far from daily life.

Many sensors and central computers are indispensable if the car can drive automatically.

They will help to choose the best path, drive the throttle and control direction, while avoiding obstacles.

One of the most important sensors is the laser rangefinder, which acts as a radar, pmitting the volume and distance data of the front object to the CPU.

Other sensors include speed sensors and angle sensors, etc., which enable the CPU to determine the status of the current vehicle.

These parts are already quite mature, and the most difficult part is how to pmit the information to the blind driver.

Based on these technologies, Hong and his team's blind driving vehicle enable motorists to control in a non visual way.

Based on the keen sense of touch of the blind, researchers have developed tactile and auditory control methods.

The driver of this car needs to wear special gloves, and each joint of the glove is fitted with a small motor with eccentric wheels.

The data returned by the sensor is processed by computer and converted into the rotation of the motor. The blind person operates in this way. When a motor starts rotating, the driver knows that he should step on the brakes or turn around at once.

Just like a cell phone vibrates, we know that there's a phone call coming in.

During driving, voice prompts the driver to turn the direction and angle of the steering wheel.

This project cancelled the way of rotating the steering wheel and replaced it with "click" behavior.

Each click will rotate the steering wheel five degrees, and the voice prompt will tell the driver to click several times.

Similarly, devices like GPS are also implemented in a non visual way.

The researchers developed a plate connected to the compressed air tank, which was filled with tiny holes, which selectively emitted compressed air from any hole.

This board can tell the blind people near the road conditions, let the driver judge the best route, looks like the active version of the Blaye Braille map.

With the help of these auxiliary technologies, trained blind drivers can also drive.

In the past few months, the R & D team has worked with thirty blind people and made further improvements on the basis of their feedback.

Hong hopes to turn the car into a commercially available product, "but that's the 100% safety of this car."

He said.

Compared with the changes it may bring, this research and development work can be quite economical.

The American Foundation for the blind sponsored $3000 for the team. Some car manufacturers and other manufacturers sponsored the hardware and software needed in the process.

Now, Hong and his team are installing a new generation of non visual interfaces on a Ford on the basis of driver feedback.

In January of next year, we can see its performance on the track, and may also witness the new future of the car.